Wilmington as the 8th Unfriendliest City in America?
This is the result of one of those Conde Nast Traveler surveys, which asks its readers to rate hotels, resorts, airlines , cruise ships and even cities. There is even a category for Friendliest and Unfriendliest City, and Wilmington made the Unfriendliest City list, ranked at 8
Wilmington, the state’s largest city, didn’t appeal to our survey takers as much as Delaware’s better known beach areas. One reader says he “would rather avoid” the city that is only “necessary to visit on business.” Other readers say Wilmington is a place with “not much charm” that “needs work.”
What do you think about this? The NJ reports on this and got plenty of reaction from locals, mainly of the cheerleading variety.
I do a fair amount of business travel. This magazine is targeted to people doing fairly high-end travel, and if I think about this from the perspective of folks coming here to visit for business, I can sort of see this. If you are lodged at the Sheraton, the Courtyard, the Doubletree or the Hotel DuPont and want to take in the local atmosphere, it is pretty clear when you bounce out of your hotel at 6PM that the local atmosphere is a work in progress. Travelers in the Conde Nast readership are going to be accustomed to places that are ready for tourist business and Wilmington is getting there slowly, but it is a work in progress.
I’m not even certain as to how well we map out the “charms” that folks can visit. I do know that one of the reasons I’m on Facebook is to have access to what is going on in the City, since the paper doesn’t adequately capture that. Go to a place like Kansas City or Omaha and you can’t escape knowing about how to be entertained. So I’d buy that we have a road to travel here, but I’ve been in towns for business that really do lack in charm. Like Oak Ridge, TN. Or Buffalo, NY. If you live here, though, it is really hard to categorize this place as being especially unfriendly. People smile at each other, they talk, everyone went to school with each other, people seem to vacation at the beach together and there’s always a round of introductions.
What do you think?
ADDING 8.3.2013: These are screen shots of the business part of this survey. You start telling the survey what countries you’ve been in over the past year, then what states/areas you’ve been in, then the cities (a selection provided by the survey; Delaware choices are Wilmington, Dover, Rehoboth Beach), then you rate the categories shown in the screen capture below.
The next screen asks you the frequency of your visits:
And you’re done rating the City. The next survey screen wants your opinion of local hotels. Pay attention to this one:
Right? This is the tell for their audience here. After this, they broaden out the survey, asking you to rate hotel brands, islands you’ve visited, mountain areas you’ve visited, cruises, airlines, then there is a final screen when you get to provide comments on any of your previous input.
That’s it. That’s how they get their unfriendly rankings.
Tags: Wilmington
The first thing that struck me about the article (and all the coverage by other media of this “story”) is that no one mentioned that Conde Nast has business offices downtown in Hercules Plaza. Not sure how many people they have employed there, but you’d have to wonder about how they feel about going to work every day in such an unfriendly city.
One of those surveys with dodgy criteria. Because, you know, everybody loves lists. What, exactly, makes a city ‘unfriendly’? And, while I wouldn’t ascribe the term ‘friendly’ to Wilmington, I wouldn’t deem it as actively unfriendly.
OTOH, rip-off $110 fines for rolling turns on red violations doesn’t win a city lots of friends. BTW, were I a lawyer, I would launch a class action lawsuit against the city for any and all citations issued at the Concord Avenue/Broom Street location. The place where you are supposed to stop is arbitrary as you need to move up a couple of feet from that line to actually see traffic coming from Miller Road. So, if you DON’T stop at the arbitrary stopping point, but DO stop in order to see the crossing traffic, you receive a citation even though you came to a full stop and you were making sure that all was clear before turning. A total rip-off which makes a mockery of the claim that the citations are done to ensure public safety.
What do I think? Basically, Wilmington sucks. The Mayor proves that. Good luck to all you residents.
As a recent voluntary transplant from 45 years in Houston, Texas, I have found the Wilmington and Delaware experience amazing. Lots to do here. Charming architecture. Convenient one way streets which make great sense for older, narrow roads though it takes some getting used to. Fabulous and convenient public services which are very citizen friendly; a dream compared to Texas’ virtual abandonment of public services. A VA hospital which is eager to meet my every need. Arts and theater abundant; especially impressed with the Delaware art museum. Much free entertainment, especially in the Riverfront area where we live. Much ethnic diversity on which we thrive. Great grocery store options and phenomenal seafood and many interesting restaurant options, including Vietnamese food to which we are addicted. The cost of living is incomparable on every level….housing, food, utilities, medical care and services of all kinds.
The only minor downsides we’ve experienced after five months here are, in no particular order: few sit down Chinese restaurants (though carry outs on almost every corner) and many missing street signs, making navigation devices somewhat useless. Oh, and have I mentioned the J walking on city streets? Amazing.
It is true that in the southern/Texas social graces we are used are absent. There, we greet one another, complete strangers on the street with a high, how are you and waves or friendly finger wagging on the car wheel, though those Texas conservatives are just as likely to later tell you you’re welcome to go back to Yankee land if you complain about heartless public policy. Here, contact with locals at retail stores, barber shops and restaurants have resulted in very open and friendly interactions and very helpful introduction to local sights, services and events. Here, rare eye contact on the street prevails and unfriendly honks if you don’t bolt out at a light change. At social/political gatherings we’ve attended so far….no greetings from strangers, few sign in lists to be part of future data bases, no name tags and no greeting committees to make strangers feel welcome and introduce them around. Seems like most folks gravitate to their comfortable cliques. One notable exception for us was a very friendly greeting and chit chat at a heavily African American City Committee meeting. We hope to introduce some of these amenities at future Democratic Party gatherings. Not much aggressive recruitment to get us involved locally as we were in Texas and in fact, we marvel as how passive Democratic leaders/ activists here are in involving us in keeping Delaware Blue compared to the desperate frenzy we lived in our political lives in very Red Texas. But we’re pretty eager to meet people so we overcome the ironic social conservatism in a most appreciated Blue state by introducing ourselves, bringing cookies and the like. One the ice is broken, great people and a fabulous lifestyle we are grateful to be experiencing. We are here to stay and wonder what took us so long to do this.
Hmm… it’s probably time for another Delaware Liberal get-together. How’s September sound?
Wilmington is not New York, Chicago, or Seattle. It’s a nice little city. It’s got all the amenities that big cities have, but doesn’t have as many iterations and they are packed in a much smaller space.
It’s great place to live, but expecting tourists to rate it as a tourist spot is, er, misguided. There’s not much to see for tourists, unless they are interested in Delaware and, as a native Virginian, I must say that Delaware’s history is not really spectacular.
Also, “Delawhere” is not a joke.
Some time ago, the family and I took the grand van tour of the country–Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Taos, you name it.
The farther from the east coast we got, the more likely was this exchange:
“Where are you from?”
“Delaware.”
“Oh! What state’s that in?”
Occasionally, we would run into another family from Delaware and we were instant friends, because, really, there aren’t that many of us.
OTOH, rip-off $110 fines for rolling turns on red violations doesn’t win a city lots of friends.
The thing about red-light violations is that it is hard to be in ANY urban (or even high-trafficked suburban) area that doesn’t have these red lights and accompanying rip-off fines. These red-lights aren’t unique to Wilmington and I have a really hard time understanding why Wilmington is supposed to treat itself as though it was a suburban shopping mall when no other cities do this. What does seem unique to Wilmington is that these cameras go up without any real safety or engineering evaluation first. The corner of Broom and Concord is a prime candidate for an engineering evaluation, since much of the risk of violation comes from trying to improve your visual position. That can be fixed with engineering. If you live here and know that corner, you know that a full stop at the stop line, THEN creeping up to see if you can turn will save you from a ticket. And that is exactly the wrong kind of behavior modification you want from these programs.
Welcome to Stan Merriman!
Sit down Chinese restaurants are thin on the ground here. My favorite in the area is Yi Palace up on 202. I can’t even think of a sit down place in the city. Then again, Philly’s Chinatown isn’t that far of a trek and I probably go there more often than anyplace here.
Not much aggressive recruitment to get us involved locally as we were in Texas and in fact, we marvel as how passive Democratic leaders/ activists here are in involving us in keeping Delaware Blue compared to the desperate frenzy we lived in our political lives in very Red Texas.
I think this is definitely true in the City. I suspect this isn’t quite as passive in NCCo. I’ve been trying to get more involved with my ward(s — redistricting) and the City Committee for awhile to no avail. My application was *lost* the last go round. It definitely isn’t as open as other places I’ve lived.
Hope to meet you soon!
I live very close to this disaster camera positioning (Broom and Concord). Our community has been working on trying to get that fixed. Besides being annoying, it’s dangerous. It’s an unnatural “stopping on red” position that results in people almost being rear-ended.
All that said, camera lights are popping up everywhere – not just in Wilmington. I’m not happy about them. Know what else I hate? Speed bumps – especially those that have the a
“alert” paint faded away. They are dangerous, mainly because even if you’re doing the speed limit you’ll be going to fast over them.
As far as “friendly” cities… it sorta creeps me out when people are too friendly. It’s probably a Northeast, “mind your own effing business” thing. When I’ve traveled in the south or mid-west all this “friendliness” comes across as work (It also comes across as rote). I really don’t like having to respond to greetings from everyone who crosses my path – it becomes a full time job! 🙂
Hi Frank!
but expecting tourists to rate it as a tourist spot is, er, misguided. There’s not much to see for tourists, unless they are interested in Delaware
I think that it isn’t a big tourist spot because we don’t showcase our own history the way that other areas do. There’s a good bit of interesting Delaware history (there’s significant Underground Railroad history in walking distance of downtown), but making that easily available to the casual tourist (and we are talking about the business-types who read that magazine who have been here, or the folks on their way to someplace else getting off of 95). And the same goes for other amenities that might be available to travelers who are looking to spend some time here.
Back when I was living in Delaware — June 2000 through May of 2002 — parts of Wilmington were gentrifying, but a lot of the city was still a wasteland. I grew up in the South, but I can tell you that, at least from personal experience, New Castle County was the most racially segregated place I have ever seen. One statistic that I clearly remember (though I can’t document it precisely, it was printed in the News-Journal) was that if the city became its own separate school district, it would be 78% black, 13% Hispanic, and that left a whopping 9% for white and Asian. But out in Hockessin, where I lived, just six miles from the city, if you saw a black person on the street, you knew he was at work, because he almost certainly didn’t live there.
Schools? Anyone who could in any way afford private or parochial schools used them, because y’all destroyed the public schools years ago in reaction to a forced busing order. Had my daughters been in the public schools, my then third grader would have been bused 45 minutes away into the city, just because they needed another white body in the city schools. That’s why Corpus Christi elementary in Elsmere was full, bursting at the seams, 33 kids to a classroom, and eat their bagged lunches at their desks because there was no room for a cafeteria, because y’all destroyed the public schools. (My daughters were in parochial schools before we moved to NCC, but even if they hadn’t been, we’d have put them in parochial school in NCC because of what the good people of NCC had done to the public schools.
Have things gotten better there since we moved away? It’s been 11 years now, but would a white driver still lock his doors going up West 2nd Street, heading home to Brackenville Road?
Sure, a frightened rabbit of a white driver would. He might also know that Hockessin had a black population then, now, and well into the past — the old segregated school house there played a part in the Delaware case that was later folded into the Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
Unfriendly nah…..unmentionable yeh….reminds me of Baltimore now in the 70s. It can come back.
I updated this post of the screen shots of the pertinent parts of the survey. There’s not much there there, but you can tell by the selection of the local hotels for ranking what their target audience consists of. This is basically one more survey based on dodgy inputs.
According to the census, the black population of Hockessin is a whopping 388 people, or 2.9% of the population, which is up from 2.5% in the 2000 census. For the whole state, the black population is over 20%.
Like I said, I grew up in the South, and it was nowhere as segregated as New Castle County was when I lived there.
Hockessin grew and the black population didn’t. But you were wrong in saying no black you saw on the street lived there — my next-door neighbors, for example, lived here even when you did — and Hockessin is hardly the first rural area to replace corn fields with McMansions that the farmers can’t afford.
But just keep on telling yourself how wonderful you are. It’s what you do best.
Entertainment in Delaware has been a dead issue for so long no one remembers what it was like, it’s why I’ve spent my life playing in Jersey, PA and Maryland. Nothing is going to change either and we all know it, Wilmington will remain a great place to get a ticket and not much more.
Really? I’d say that entertainment — at least close by in Wilmington — is getting better. Plenty of local places are trying to provide venues for musicians, off of the top of my head there’s Nomad (jazz), Shenanigans, Loma Coffee House, Ubon (sometimes), Firestone, the Queen and a few others that are walking distance to my house. The Ladybug Festival was a few weeks ago, and lots of places try to provide a showcase for musicians during Art Loop. It isn’t perfect, and maybe there are acts not to your liking, but there really is a good deal of effort to provide opportunities to perform (and see) local acts.
It is a shame the paper didn’t ask former Mayor Baker for reaction on this.
I think minor league hockey would improve the city’s reputation.